Portland Regional - 1st outing in an Atlantic!
As some of you know I was searching last fall for an Atlantic to replace the FSCCA I was selling (I spent the two years prior to that in FC in a Swift DB3). I ended up buying Bob Barne's 1990 DB4 (out of southern california) with a loynings injected toyota, spare transmission (how ironic considering my previous carand a ton of spares. After spending the winter taking the car down to the tub and putting it back together again I finally hit the track last weekend at Portland running the test day on friday and the regional on saturday/sunday.
Here is a picture by Doug Berger of me going through the festical curves:
http://www.photosport.net/gallery/SC..._4_05_0554.htm
Now I know some of you are laughing - Portland in April is almost guaranteed to be cold and raining (and it was
I thought I would start the first test session in the dry but it starting raining lightly as I was pulling out of the pits (yes, on slicks). My first lap was pretty uneventful (and very slow) but on the second lap coming out of the revised festival curves (as I hit the bottom of the power-band at 6500 rpm) on damp cold tires coming out of turn three (the left hand kink) I spun off into the infield. Hell of a way to start off in a new car! Fortunately the only damage was a bent left front wing endplate.
From then on it rained, and rained, and rained. I switched to an old set of rain tires and spent most of my time in second gear trying to go fast enough to stay in the powerband but slow enough to stay on the track. These cars are simply awesome! I haven't felt that kind of throttle response since my shifter kart days. I spent an hour and a half in the rain that day trying to break out of the low 1:40's.
Of the seven sessions on the track (over three days) I had only one dry session - the first qualifying session saturday afternoon. With only eleven laps of dry running I managed to get within 3.25 seconds of Arnie Loyning who was driving a Swift 008 dressed as a CSR. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed with myself. I expected to be 1-2 seconds faster. BTW, the field was tiny - Race Group B had only seven entries. Two CSRs (Arnie in the Swift and another gentleman in a Radical), one atlantic (me), one S2 (Bob Scheib), one FM (Matt Kurdock), one DSR (Steven Berry), and one SS2 (Larry Bergman).
They combined the group B and group D (non-winged formula cars) for the race in the rain. Arnie was pole, me outside, and Matt in the FM on the inside second row. Matt had a good start and managed to squeak by Arnie going into turn one. Arnie got him back by the end of the first lap (I don't remember if it was on the back or front straight) and took off. The second CSR got around me without difficulty as I did the same to the FM (Matt seemed to be having as much trouble in the wet as I was). I spent most of the race fighting off Bob in the S2. He would pull up along side me coming out on the straights but didn't have enough power once I was pointed straight to get by. After several laps of this fun I pointed him by going into turn one not wanting to hold him up any longer. Was it Stan Clayton who said "Blasting down the straights and parking it in the corners does not an Atlantic pilot make"? For the rest of the race I concentrated on staying with Bob and managed to keep the gap at a constant three seconds (his fastest lap was 3/4 of a second quicker - Arnie was almost five seconds quicker than I was).
It was a good weekend. I spent 85% of track time in the rain and took the car home in one piece on its first weekend. I had only two spins the entire weekend (the first previously mentioned) and the second of which I didn't leave the track.
What did I learn?
1) I made the right decision to sell the FSCCA and buy the DB4 (I'm not quite sure what to do with the DB3 - I can't look at it quite the way I used to). While not as outright fast as anything made in the last fifteen years or so it is what I can afford to race reliably. My personal philosophy is I would rather be at the back of FA than at the front of a slower class (or be the only competitor like I was in FC).
2) Bring a big battery charger. A little 1 amp battery tender can't keep the battery up between sessions.
3) I need to stop driving it like an FC. I can carry a *lot* more speed through the corners. I know I can.
4) I have a lot to learn about racing in the rain in FA. My FC was *considerably* easier to drive at the limit in the rain - and much less nerve racking
5) Atlantics make wonderful noises that can only be truly appreciated from the cockpit.
I want to publicly thank all the people who helped me get here (in alphabetical order): Jack Crone, Rennie Clayton, Doug Esterbrook, Bill Gillespie, Arnie Loyning, David Miller, Joe Stimola, and Bill Wilson. I plan on staying awhile.
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